Alpha
by HecateA
Summary: Once the war ends, an old friend of Remus' visits Harry, and Teddy's family gets bigger in ways Harry hadn't even imagined. Oneshot.


**Author's Note: **Werewolves, dudes. That's what I'm saying.

**Disclaimer: **The following characters belong to J.K. Rowling, and this story derives from her original works, storylines, and world. Please do not sue me, I can barely pay tuition.

**Warnings: **NA

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**Stacked with:** MC4A; By Any Other Name; Snicket Fence

**Individual Challenge(s):** Gryffindor MC; Forehead Kisses; Summer Vacation; Seeds; Tiny Terror; Short Jog

**Representation(s):** Werewolf social organization and support; werewolves underground; Harry raising Teddy

**Bonus Challenge(s):** Found Family; Nontraditional; Teat Juice

**Tertiary Bonus Challenge(s):** NA

**Word Count: **2014

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**Alpha **

Harry was, to put it nicely, busy—and busy in the particular kind of way that meant that he did _not _want to be disturbed by the Minister of Magic himself, and Kingsley was an old friend.

Still, he pulled his shirt back on.

"I've got to go," he said, gently shrugging Ginny off. "What if she comes up here looking for me?"

"I've got no shame left," Ginny said.

"You didn't have any to begin with." He smiled and kissed her forehead. "I'll be right back, I promise."

"If it's Ministry people bothering you even when you told them that you were taking today off..?" Ginny ventured.

"I'll set you loose on them."

"That's right," Ginny said satisfied, leaning back on her pillows.

Harry closed the door on his way out, and called out: "Coming, Mrs. Weasley!"

She met him at the foot of the staircase.

"Sorry dear, were you catching up on sleep?" she asked.

"Don't worry, Mrs. Weasley, it's fine," Harry promised. "Is it Ministry business?"

"No, no," she said. "It's… well, I don't really know. He's looking for you and he said he knew Remus."

Harry frowned, but readjusted his glasses over his nose.

"Okay," he said. "Okay, umm, where..?"

"At the door," Mrs. Weasley said, twisting the tea towel in her hands. "He wouldn't come in…"

The Burrow was mercifully empty for the afternoon; Mr. Weasley was at work, Ron and Hermione had gone down to the village, and Bill, Fleur and Charlie had taken George out to the beach and Merlin knew what else they'd get up to. In the house's doorframe stood a disheveled-looking man with shaggy grey hair who nonetheless seemed to have tried to shave recently, and had tucked a well-worn shirt in a well-worn pair of pants much too big for him, but held up by a belt. His eyes were green like jade, and Harry had the distinct sense that he'd seen him before, though he'd met so many new people recently that it was hard to pinpoint _where_…

"Hi," he said. "I'm Harry."

It was stupid, everybody knew who he was—_The Daily Prophet _had made sure of that, if the wanted posters plastered all over the country during the last year hadn't. Still, he was picking up manners about how to behave in official situations by thinking back to how Bill and Mr. Weasley and Kingsley and Tonks and Remus all behaved.

"Hi," the man said, twitchy. "You—you might remember me from St. Mungo's, a few years ago…"

"Right," Harry said. "You were in Mr. Weasley's hospital room. I don't think I know your name though, sorry."

"It's Andrew," he said. "Andrew Lattimer."

"Pleased to meet you," Harry said, holding out his hand. Lattimer hesitated before shaking, and looked around the Burrow for a moment. He was shifty and nervous, but the wards around the house would surely have kept him away if he was any kind of trouble…

"I was looking for Remus Lupin," Lattimer said. "I mean—I saw in the papers, they said he'd died, that he was amongst the dead, but I just… None of us were there at the Battle of Hogwarts, and we had to ask…"

"Oh," Harry said. That had been a month ago. He'd expected to be done, breaking all the bad news by now. "Yes, I'm sorry. He died in battle. Cursed from behind."

"Right," Lattimer said, scratching the back of his head. "Right..."

"My condolences," Harry said, which was something else he had been saying a lot of.

"Do you want to come in for tea?" Harry asked.

Lattimer looked a bit surprised, but looking him over, Harry saw the same frail build that Lupin had borne. He wondered when the man's last meal had been, and whether or not it had been anything worthwhile anyways.

"I wouldn't want to intrude…" Lattimer said.

"Harry, are you inviting your guest in for tea?" Mrs. Weasley said, appearing from the kitchen with a tea service.

"I'm working on it, Mrs. Weasley," Harry said. "This is Mr. Lattimer. He was a friend of Remus'."

"Oh," Mrs. Weasley said. "Oh, I see. My condolensces, then."

"And to you as well, ma'am," Lattimer said.

"Do you prefer milk or cream in your tea, sir? We've got milk but my bunch finished the cream yesterday—but if that's what you like, it's no trouble to go down to the village store…"

"Ma'am, you should know that I'm a werewolf," Lattimer disclaimed.

"Okay, dear. And do you prefer milk or cream?" Mrs. Wealsey asked.

Lattimer looked stunned.

"Milk is nice," he said at last.

Harry took the tea tray from Mrs. Weasley.

"Thank you," he told her. "Can we use the living room?"

"Of course, dear," she nodded.

The living room was where Ron and Harry were living at the moment, since the ghoul was still occupying Ron's room and it seemed unfair to kick it out when they'd be moving to London for their Auror training so soon anyways... Harry set down the tea tray and swept the beds they'd set on the ground under the couch with a wave of his wand.

"Sorry for the mess," Harry said.

"No, not at all," Lattimer said, sitting down, hands on his lap. "Nice, big house…"

"It's beautiful," Harry nodded. He poured two cups and sat down as well.

He let a moment pass.

"How did you know Remus?" Harry asked. "I mean, sorry, silly question. Obviously, you met at St. Mungo's. I just didn't know that you'd kept in touch."

"He wouldn't have mentioned it," Lattimer said. "He was a good Alpha that way."

"Pardon?" Harry asked.

"Sorry, that's pack language," Lattimer said, taking a sip of tea. Harry was still confused, but didn't know how to ask.

"Do you think Fenrir Greyback is the only one to have ever organized werewolves together?" Lattimer asked. He shook his head. "No. Greyback's just the only one to have militarized them. Remus would never have done that to us, but he did want to keep us together."

"Remus had a…" Harry wasn't sure if this was an alright thing to say.

Lattimer nodded.

"We call ourselves a pack jokingly. There's a world of werewolf humour you'll never know. It's a way to connect. It's so, so lonely being like us," Lattimer said. He ran a hand through his hair. "Once you're bitten, where do you go from there? If you're Muggle, you'll never understand. If you're wizard, you've got such an idea of what you'll be—you'll lose your entire life. And there's no way for you to learn how to manage it, what to do, how to take care of yourself. And if you've been bitten, you'll keep it to yourself—nobody can know—so when the next person is bitten, how do they find out anything? There's no community, you see, because everyone's afraid. Sometimes it's so lonely you wonder if you're not dead, really."

Lattimer chewed his lip.

"Remus felt that. He felt it bad. But he was smart enough and quiet enough to get us organized. And Remus hated when we called him the Alpha, but he held us together. He took me in, took a lot of us in, introduced us quietly to one another, got us organized... The pack, we only saw each other once a month, the day after a full moon—we had this breakfast spot to go to, to check in on each other. But Remus would also write to us, set it up so that we could write to each other, make sure we sent birthday cards, keep us updated on any news from the Ministry the Magical Creature peoples are keeping things from us…"

"That sounds like him," Harry said quietly.

Lattimer nodded.

"It got harder as You-Know-Who got more powerful. And then Remus had to go underground for the Order of the Phoenix, I think he said?" Lattimer said.

"About two years ago, yeah," Harry nodded.

Lattimer took a sip of his tea and shook his head.

"Is it true that he was married? We heard rumours, some of us, but he was very private, for her sake..."

"Yeah, it's true," Harry said. "His wife—we called her Tonks. She was great."

"The Auror? She died too then, didn't she?"

"Yes," Harry said.

Lattimer nodded again and went to take a sip of his tea but it was gone. That seemed to push him to ask what Harry suspected had been burning on his lips all along.

"We heard there was a baby too," Lattimer said. "Well, Greyback heard from some Death Eaters and then it all came in through the grapevine, so we didn't trust it…"

"No, it's true, they had a baby," Harry said. "A little boy, named Teddy."

"A boy, eh?" Lattimer said. He scratched the back of his head nervously. "And he's..?"

"Perfect," Harry said. "Absolutely perfect. Adorable, funny, social, chirpy. Has a really weird laugh though—sounds like he's hiccupping."

"No kidding," Lattimer said.

"Not at all affected by lycanthropy," Harry said more bluntly, to make it clear. "Remus was really afraid of that."

"Oh, I bet," Lattimer said. He ran a hand over his face. "I would… I would have lost my mind…"

"Yeah, he kind of did," Harry admitted. "Got it back though. Umm… I'm his godfather, I've got him on weekends. His nap should end soon, if you want to..."

"I've got him," he heard Ginny call. She was standing in the door, a purple-haired Teddy in her arms. "He was waking up, and I figured you were busy…"

"I'll make it up to you," he whispered to her, kissing her cheek as he lifted Teddy into his own arms. "And _hello_ you… how was that nap? Did you have dreams as sweet as you, mister Teddy?"

He babbled away, and sat down next to Lattimer again.

"So this is Teddy," Harry said, nestling the baby in the crook of his arm. "He's going to be four months next week."

"Four months," Lattimer repeated.

"Did you want to hold him? He's really friendly," Harry promised.

Lattimer stiffened up, and shook his head.

"Sorry—thanks, but—I wouldn't want to… It's—umm—it's enough for me to know that he's real and that he's okay," he said.

"He's okay," Harry promised.

Lattimer nodded along again.

"Well, thank you," he said getting up. Harry got up with him.

"With Remus gone, do you… need anything?"

"We'll be fine," Lattimer promised. "Always are, always will be."

"Are you taking care of things now?" Harry asked. "I'm just asking because Remus would want to know that his people were taken care of…"

"Yeah, I suppose I am the Alpha now," Lattimer said, running a hand through his hair. "At least I'm the poor sod that got sent here. Not that you haven't been hospitable! You're lovely, this is lovely, it was lovely to meet you. I—I should be going. Really, I was just here to… to check on things. And I should let you know that if Teddy ever needs anything, he's got a pack. We're on the scruffy side and we don't have much, but…"

"I'm sure one day he'll love to hear more about Remus," Harry said. He got up and held out one hand. "Thank you."

And for all of Lattimer's nervous mannerisms, his handshake was firm and steady and strong. He looked Harry in the eyes and smiled.


End file.
